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Yes, There Will Be Class Tonight at William Penn House

ByElizabeth

For those students who live within a few blocks, have power, and are not needed for such emergency assistance that can be provided before the trains are running and the roads reopened, what better than to come out and practice yoga as usual?  (Or if the storm has made it impossible to get out, it’s a great time for your home practice).

The yoga practices are such a healthy way to channel the energy from having been cooped up by the storm and to revive and enhance one’s flexibility, adaptability, balance, and strength.  It has been my experience that steady practice invites us to be ever more capable to address what confronts and engages us on our path (whether we like it or not).  Sending loving energy to all who have been challenged hard by Sandy’s path or otherwise.

 

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    Aerial Views of the Garden

    ByElizabeth

    In response to requests, here are some photos of the garden in its current state.

    The vine on the left is grapes–there are many dozens of bunches forming.  The vine on the right is a kiwi.  I planted it four years ago, and finally there are some fruits–at most a couple dozen, but it’s a start.  There aren’t enough strawberries to bring inside, but there are always a couple to eat when I am out working.

    Current herbs:  cilantro, basil (thai and genovese), Mexican and Greek oregano, parsley, sorrel, tarragon, lemon balm, spearmint, kentucky colonel mint, garlic chives, savory, sage, thyme, rosemary, lavender, stevia, and dill.  Greens include mesclun, arugula, kale, chard, and are ready to eat now.

    Snowpeas are on there way (and I ate snow pea greens with garlic scapes and herbs for dinner tonight).  Beans are blossoming; cherry tomatoes and cucumbers have formed, as have a couple of zucchini and a variety of peppers.  Blueberries are ripening and figs are just starting to bud on the new growth.  Carrots and turnips are mostly just a promise, but I expect at least a few.  Leeks and spring onions are poking through, but don’t seem to be getting along with this year’s weather patterns.

    What’s growing in your garden?  (Even when I lived in an efficiency apartment in school, I had herbs growing in pots.  And sprouting is its own kind of gardening and only requires a kitchen counter.)  A garden can be made wherever you are, if you want one enough.

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    State of the Garden

    ByElizabeth

    At last, after seven years of being just an apparently invasive vine, the grape kiwi is fruiting. The squirrels and birds will get most, but I am getting some.

    I am reminded, by my hopefully tending the vine for years without fruit, of the power of perseverance and patience.  Something like yoga practice.

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    45-Minute Savasana

    ByElizabeth

    Yesterday morning, when I came out of savasana following my regular a.m. practice, one of my cats was happily stretched the length of my side with his chin resting on my upper arm. He had not been there when I first moved into savasana. I looked at the clock and realized that I had been in savasana for 45 minutes, which was ample time for the cat to get comfortable. It would be, perhaps, more accurate to say I had been in savasana for several minutes (exact number of minutes unknown) and many more minutes blissfully asleep.

    I very rarely fall asleep in savasana. Falling asleep in savasana regularly is a pretty good indicator of sleep deprivation, which is something I make an effort to avoid for my overall health and happiness.

    On Saturday night I had stayed out fairly late, enjoying a meal, followed by dessert and book-browsing with a friend. When I got home at around 11:30 I felt a strong need to write in my journal about my initial reaction to the tragic shooting in Arizona. The cats were excited that I was awake at that hour, so I also spent some extra time petting them. This meant I was awake about two hours later than is usual for me.

    The morning wake up sound (currently a recording of the Sri Rudrum) went off at its usual 5:57 a.m. Oof. The temptation was high just to turn off the sound and go back to sleep.

    I know from long experience that the next several days will be better if I get up and do my regular hour to an hour and a half morning practice, which consists of a little asana, some pranayama, meditation and meditation-related practices, and savasana, and then trust that I will find an opportunity for a quick nap later in the day. My practice is my center, my delight, my exploration, my grounding; at this point, I come close to saying it is an essential part of who I am. When I have a busy day scheduled–as I did yesterday–it is still almost unthinkable to miss the practice, though on rare occasions out of necessity I will shorten it to just 30 minutes of meditation.

    It turned out that the end of my practice turned into the nap I needed. The practice followed by the blissfully long rest was, though, far more what I needed than staying in bed for longer and wondering when and whether I could fit in a practice later.

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    Expanding to Receive the Beauty, Opening to Grace, and the Isha Upanishad

    ByElizabeth

    In Anusara yoga, one of the ways the first principle of “opening to grace” can be experienced and practiced  is as a radical expansion of the capacity to receive and appreciate the very wonder of being.  During my visit to India with Professor Douglas Brooks, I found myself repeatedly thinking of the concept of radical expansion and also the preamble to the Isha Upanishad (long a favorite of mine; Shantala on their first CD, Love Window, have done an exquisite rendition), which can be roughly translated as saying that adding fullness to fullness is itself fullness (fullness can also be translated here as perfection).

    What I believe this is saying that being itself is infinitely full; thus, we cannot make it more infinite by adding to it.  Human consciousness of the infinitude of being, though, is limited by the filters of space and time.   One of the key reasons to practice yoga (including meditation) is to expand both our capacity to appreciate the fullness and to receive its full wonder by uniting our own consciousness with the infinitude.  When we can appreciate ever more the wonder of our being, we will naturally be more joyous, and I believe, led to be more compassionate and generous with ourselves and others.

    Day after day on the India pilgrimage, just when I thought my heart and mind were already full to bursting, there were yet more experiences of the beauty and extraordinariness of life and creativity and nature.  I found myself chanting the Isha Upanishad—purnamadah, purnamidam, puranata purnamudatacyate.  Fullness and fullness is fullness.  “Let me expand still more to appreciate to its utmost yet more beauty,” I thought to myself again and again.  Though I already thought I’d developed a fairly full understanding of the concept through study and practice, I thought, “this is what John Friend means when he is talking about radical expansion.” I look forward to studying and practicing to experience and share ever more beauty.

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